From: "Brian Schröder" <ruby.brian@...>
Date: 2005-08-26T21:37:18+09:00
Subject: Re: symbols vs. strings

On 26/08/05, Mark Volkmann <r.mark.volkmann@gmail.com> wrote:
> I got the impression that when a method expects a Hash containing
> certain keys, I can generally specify the keys using either Symbol or
> String objects. So I tried this.
> 
> h = {}
> h[:foo] = 19
> h['foo'] = 20
> 
> and was surprised to see that those are treated as distinct entries in the Hash.
> 
> So how is it that I can sometimes choose whether I want to specify a
> given key as either a Symbol or a String?
> 
> For example, when using Tk and w represents some widget, I think I can
> say either
> 
> w.pack(:side => 'top')
> 
> or
> 
> w.pack('side' => 'top')
> 
> --
> R. Mark Volkmann
> Partner, Object Computing, Inc.
> 
> 

That can e.g. be implemented like this:

def pack(arghash)
  arghash = arghash.inject({}) { | r, (k, v) | r[k.to_s] = v; r }
  side = arghash['side']
  ...
end

regards,

Brian

-- 
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